Saturday, October 29, 2005

2 Go to the Ali page.3 Download the mp3 file. Its not very big, about 1.6 mb so it shouldn't take more than ten minutes, even on a slow connection.4 Listen to the part of the film and read the dialogue at the same time.5 Now record yourself giving the speech. If you have a microphone on the computer use the ηχογραφηση programme that come with Windows.

The important thing is to practice this so that you no longer are worrying about the pronunciation of individual words and focus on the flow of the language and how the actor is using his or her voice. Now listen to yourself. Do you sound like a real person or just a robot mindlessly mouthing words without any emotion ?

I was thinking that we should set up a class music library. If everyone records a cdr with their 10 favourite albums in mp3 format we could then swop and everyone could get the chance to build up a killer music collection without spending loads of money.

2 Go to the Remember The Titans page.3 Download the mp3 file. Its not very big, about 1.6 mb so it shouldn't take more than ten minutes, even on a slow connection.4 Listen to the part of the film and read the dialogue at the same time.5 Now record yourself giving the speech. If you have a microphone on the computer use the ηχογραφηση programme that come with Windows.

The important thing is to practice this so that you no longer are worrying about the pronunciation of individual words and focus on the flow of the language and how the actor is using his or her voice. Now listen to yourself. Do you sound like a real person or just a robot mindlessly mouthing words without any emotion ?

1 Reading, too, is important - I'd need to reasearch my genrethoroughly in order to familiarize myself with the conventionsof mystery novels, making sure to develop my own personalstyle.There's every possibilty, of course, that publishers won'tlike my work. Rejection is difficult to cope with and can easilylead to feelings of self-doubt.

2 Starting a novel may be easy, but finishing it and finding apublisher are not. Some manange ro rise above the problems,though - so why not me ?

3 Last but not least, I couldn't possibly imagine taking up thechallenge without the support of my family, cheering me on inthe backgound. And if my money ran out, I know that I couldalways go to them for help.

4 In order to become a writer, however, you have to write, andas you can imagine, that takes a great deal of hard work andself-discipline. It also requires inspiration, and one of thetoughest problems an aspriring author is likely to come upagainst is "writer's block", when your ideas dry up and youstare for hours on end at a blank page.

5 Did you know that for every 20,000 novels written, only onegets published? On the face of it then, the likelihood that Iwill ever fulfill my ambition of becoming a professionalmystery writer doesn't seem very high. But the prospect ofturning my lifelong passion into my livelihood and achievingfame and fortune at the same time is just too exciting for meto be put off by dull statistics.

The correct answer will be posted soon. In the mean time check out another author's answer to this problem at

Saturday, October 08, 2005

To all my new students I'll be using a correction code to correct your written work. Beware!!!

Correction Code

The object of this code is to let youlook at your mistakes on your own andlearn from them.

sp Spelling e.g. Friends not frindsgr Grammar e.g. Lots of money not many moneyprPreposition eg. I live in London not I live at Londonpu Punctuation e.g. I like milk not i like milkvt Verb tense e.g. I went to Spain in 1995 not I have gone to Spain in 1995wo Word order e.g. I like dancing very much not I like very much dancingww Wrong word e.g. I missed the bus not I lost the busmwMissing word e.g. I saw a bird not I saw birdr Repetition i.e. saying the same again and again and again etc.

Well, we have just finished our first "real" week and I hope that I didn't bore you into a temporary coma. If you don't get any of the photocopies I hand out then you will be able to find them here during the course of the year. If anyone has any comments on what we can do to make the lessons more effective, don't hesitate to post them.

Also the film White Squall is kinda connected with the topic. Check out the IMDB (Internet Movie Date Base) site below. Just put White Squall in the box on your left when you get there. For some reason it won't let me send you directly to the page.

Monday, October 03, 2005

I hope you all enjoyed our first lesson today and that we all have a great time (and lots of exam success) over the course of our eight months together. Remember, if you want to comment you have to set up a blog. It's very easy and lots of fun, so why don't you try it?

Saturday, October 01, 2005

This is going to be a quick post for all my students, I hope you all have a great year and get what you want. Just remember that through the wonder of technology I can keep an eye on all your blogs. HaHaHa he says in his most maniacal laugh.....So get posting and express yourself.